Bonham will always be my Fav. no doubt I think Bonham popularity arise from not only being a great drummer but a total original no one like him kinda like Hendrix in a way, I've had the pleasure of seeing DP 4 times only once with Ritchie (Perfect Strangers tour) Ian totally killed it everytime I seen him through.

Bonzolead

This Bonham Paice thing has come alot, and it's really apples and oranges.

Both are killer drummers, but Zepplin and Bonham played a variety of styles that Deep Purple never did. But I also think that John Paul Jones really made Bonham. Take away Jone's bass playing and what would Bonham have done? It's amazing how many think alot of Jones' bass playing is drums. Rock and Roll is a great example of this. I don't think I've ever heard anything from Bonham that wasn't with Zepplin so what could he have done without Jones? Paice has played with a lot of different musicians, but the music has been straight forward hard rock for the most part, so what else can he do? What would he do with the folk, country and acoustic stuff? We can assume a lot, but we'll never know any of this until it's done which is something Bonham can't do now.

One thing about both of them that makes them greats in my opinion is that they are both musicians and drummers. Not only could they both play fantastic grooves, but they also played them melodically. 2 Songs for Paice that I didn't see mentioned here are Hush and Woman From Tokyo. Listen to that chourus bridge thing in Hush, not only does Paice nail the rhythm, but he plays the melody while doing it. These guys didn't play drums, they played songs. Something that is sadly missing today in the mainstream.

I think Paice has missed the point when he talks about everybody sounding the same now. The drummers he mentions played at a time when drummers could be musicians more then they are allowed today. So much of rock is cookie cutter music to repeat was has been successful. Listen to top 40 radio today, and you're really listening to a half a dozen songs redone over and over. It's rare if not impossible for a top 40 group to step out of the box.